World Superbike
Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) stormed to the top of the timesheets again on Tuesday at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit with...

World Superbike

Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) stormed to the top of the timesheets again on Tuesday at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit with a best lap of 1’30.303, a whole 0.440 seconds faster than his best from the previous day and nearly half a second quicker than four-time world champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), fourth fastest at the Aussie racetrack.

Tuesday morning saw kinder winds and warmer conditions than the opening day of testing. Despite this, the bar that Ducati’s Spaniard had set on Monday remained unsurpassed by all but three riders. Bautista has emerged as the early and clear frontrunner for the opening race of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, and it will be interesting to see who, if anyone, can match the hairsplitting pace he’s put on display here.

Nonetheless, six more men did manage to set sub 1’31 laps, with second-placed Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and fifth-placed Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) split by two tenths of a second.

In between them in fourth sat Jonathan Rea, who had previously topped nearly every pre-season testing session in 2018 and 2019. No one will be disregarding the reigning World Champion any time soon however. It bears repeating that Rea is still on an 11-race winning streak and when he is on his game there are few, if any riders capable of going the distance with the four-time champion. But for now, the gap between the two men has been striking: just in the first Tuesday session, Bautista recorded seven laps faster than Rea’s then best of 1’30.761.

Testing is much more than setting fast lap times however, and there was again much work to be done on Tuesday in Australia. Rea’s teammate Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) made great strides on the ZX-10RR, putting in more laps (74) than anyone out on track. The Englishman’s base setup is very similar to the reigning champion’s, with Haslam’s crew now focused on tweaking it to his own style. It seems to be working well, as a late flurry of times pushed the 35-year-old above Rea on the timesheets.

Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) meanwhile managed to cut down his best lap time from Monday by a full second, as he continues to find his feet on the Panigale V4 R, although the Welshman was still nearly 1.5s behind his teammate’s pace.

2018 double Aussie winner Marco Melandri closed Tuesday as fifth best after hard work was put in to the front of his Yamaha YZF R1. With an optimal setup now in place, attention veered towards finetuning in the afternoon. Ditto for the rookie Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK), eighth at Phillip Island.

A big midday crash down Turn 1 and a late tumble across turn 4 for Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) were the main setbacks on Tuesday for the Crescent Racing squad. Neither the Brit – ninth – nor Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) – seventh – were far off the pace, however, with their attention focused on finding a good balance for the always treacherous Aussie track.

A series of red flags in the morning hindered many a race simulation around the paddock, but it was still a good day’s work for the BMW Motorrad squad as both Sykes and Markus Reiterberger – struggling yesterday with a small shoulder injury – tested different chassis solutions, with both men meeting expectations.

A tricky opening day for Moriwaki Althea Honda Team led to improved performances on Tuesday, as they fight against the clock to find a good base setup for Phillip Island. Leon Camier (Moriwaki Althea Honda Team) crept into the top 10 throughout most of the day with a best lap of 1’31.443 (eventually falling to 13th), while Ryuichi Kiyonari ended in 15th position.

A late fastest lap pushed Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) up to a fantastic sixth in the Tuesday standings. The Turkish starlet is still going through the 2019 updates on the ZX-10RR, as was the case for Jordi Torres and Team Pedercini Racing, while Tati Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) focused on improving tyre preservation. Steps forward were also taken by Eugene Laverty (Team Goeleven) and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (BARNI Racing Team), although the former suffered a technical problem close to the end of session one. Alessandro Delbianco (Althea Mie Racing Team) and wildcard Troy Herfoss (Penrite Honda Racing) closed the timesheets.

World Supersport

Pre-season testing for the FIM Supersport World Championship has officially concluded after another two sessions at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit led by Randy Krummenacher and Federico Caricasulo (BARDAHL Evan Bros WorldSSP Team). The yellow and black-clad racers were followed in the timesheets by Raffaele De Rosa (MV Agusta Reparto Corse), with the top six seemingly a cut above the rest.

With a lap time of 1’33.111, seven tenths of a second faster than his personal best on Monday, Krummenacher managed to open a gap at the top of the leaderboard over his teammate, who nonetheless also set several faster lap times than the day prior. The pair led or remained near the top of the timesheets in each of the Aussie track’s sectors and have emerged as the early frontrunners to win Sunday’s inaugural race.

A crash in yesterday’s opening session conditioned Cluzel and GMT94’s preparations on Monday, as the French squad adapt to their full season return to WorldSSP. Tuesday was smoother for the 30-year-old, as he finished 0.524s off Krummenacher and leapt below 1’34.000 for the first time this week. Fellow Frenchman Corentin Perolari (GMT94 YAMAHA) also continued his adaptation to the Australian track, ending fifth in the standings, a position that the GMT94 squad would deem very satisfactory if it were to be repeated on Sunday.

Meanwhile, MV Agusta Reparto Corse continue moving slowly up to the level of the leading Yamahas, as Raffaele De Rosa moved into third on Tuesday (fastest in the second session). While the bike remains similar, the former STK1000 champion’s crew has moved to the WorldSSP class for the first time after working last season on the WorldSBK side of things. Focus on Tuesday went on engine configurations, while teammate Federico Fuligni (MV Agusta Reparto Corse), eleventh, continued adapting to the WorldSSP bike.

Closing out the top six was Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), focused on finding the right setup for Phillip Island as well as well as learning how to tame the ZX-6R. On the other side of the garage, Hikari Okubo (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) concluded his pre-season testing in seventh position.

Eighth fastest on the day was Hector Barberà (Team Toth by Willirace), who seems to be adapting swiftly to the Yamaha YZF R6. Kallio Racing’s Austrian recruit Thomas Gradinger was the Finnish team’s fastest rider on the day in ninth, just over a second behind the frontrunners, while Isaac Viñales (Kallio Racing) and Loris Cresson (Kallio Racing) ended the day twelfth and fifteenth, respectively. Hannes Soomer (MPM WILSport by Racedays), tenth on Tuesday, was the fastest Honda, while newcomer Jules Danilo (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda), sixteenth, clocked in the most laps of the day at 70.